Hosting the Burundian SnapChat account was a very cool experience for me. Before that, I had been following the account for only a few weeks and at first, I thought: huuum this is a fantastic concept. Of course, I was kind of lost; I had no idea what African Trip was. I finally got a friend to talk to me about it, and I decided to follow the page and see what’s going on there. I quickly got hooked on it. Seeing these Burundians interacting with one another on social media, sharing their lives abroad, their adventures, their opinions, each host for 24 hours, was enriching and very fun at the same time.
I followed more accounts (rwa-250,mboa237,mboka242-243,babii225,etc.) and it got more interesting to see young people from all these different countries creating connections, inspiring each other, sharing the good vibe. I just loved it.
Now that you have an idea of what Buja257 is, let other hosts and I tell you 4 things you can expect before hosting the account and what can really happen.
Expectation#1: You think you know which questions they will ask so you practice the answers you will give.
Reality: No one will ask you those questions if you already have an answer to them. It is as if they know that you already have an answer ready.
Expectation#2: You’ve seen how some hosts get roasted and get angry, so you put in place a plan just in case that happens to you.
Reality: Actually, no one will be disrespectful towards you. Come on, we all know Burundians are very polite people, don’t we?
Expectation#3: You think 24 hours you are given to host is a lot of time, and you plan 10 thousand things you will do/show/say.
Reality: Your time will be over before you even notice it.
Expectation#4: You believe the major key to success is being yourself, so you don’t stress out and wait for your day until…
Reality: …You realize that JUST a couple thousands of people follow Buja257 and you probably only know ten of them. Either you don’t care much, and you act all crazy because that’s who you are or…you get intimidated by that and act all shy and now you can expect that all your friends will text you: mbe ko wigirisha amasoni?
“Once they gave me the account to host it, I told myself I was going to enjoy it to the max. That’s probably one of the reasons why people enjoyed it. I think! People usually think I’m an unapproachable person which I’m not all the time (smile!!). So when I was hosting the page, I made sure no one thinks that of me. And thanks to Buja257, people now think that I am a cool guy.”I am Duchesse and I approve this message!!!
-Lancelot-
” I like to have fun and connect with people with good vibe. Hosting Buja257 allowed me to connect with many people. People that I am not sure I would have ever met without Buja257 or Mboa237, Mbolo241 or Kwabo229. Being host showed me that we Africans are very welcoming. When I hosted other accounts, people really showed interest in our culture and our country, which most of them never heard of before. Today, I am so happy to know that Cameroonians, Ivorians or even Senegalese watch Buja257 daily. Snapchat allows us to connect and talk and only something positive can come out of it.”
-Lancelot-
“We were expecting to be asked simple questions like ‘where do you see yourself in five years‘ but people were asking hard questions that really made us think on a more intellectual level .They also intervened a lot to our discussions, which was pleasant and surprising at the same time. Also, we were so convinced that people who know us or those we went to school with would write more and ask more questions , but those we didn’t know were the ones who interacted with us the most.Oh and thank God there wasn’t as many ” shalout ” requests as we anticipated hahaha”
-Tessie&Winnie-
“Surprisingly we didn’t have enough time to do everything we had planned or even share topics we had in mind or reply to all the questions that were asked. uhmm now that I am thinking about it, they should let us host once again lol.”
-Tessie&Winnie-
“I thought 24 hours was a lot of time. The day they gave me the account to host, I was studying for an exam, and I was stressed out and confuses because I wasn’t ready at all. Yo! I’ve heard my friends talk about the roast of other hosts on Twitter, and I was like I don’t want to be roasted on Twitter, I don’t have time for that. I was so afraid to talk in English but I kept getting questions in English, and I was like don’t even play yourself. I was expecting to have tons of questions, but it seemed like people just disappeared that day and no one was asking me anything.”
-Leila-
“I usually don’t take myself too seriously, but somehow I got questions that required me to be more serious, but it turned out good, and I enjoyed it because I got to share my thoughts on Burundi and how we Burundians can improve ourselves.
-Leila-
So dear Burundians/ Burundi lovers, are you going to host Buja257 or nah? Either you’re an introvert or an extrovert; there is a place for you on Buja257. Viewers will like you just the way you are, and you will not regret hosting, I guarantee that 🙂
Lots of Love
-Dee-
- Major thank you to Lancelot, Leila, Tessie, and Winnie for sharing their experiences as hosts of Buja257 with me.
- If you want to host Buja257 on Snapchat follow these simple steps:
- Add Buja257 on Snapchat and follow their Twitter
- Email burundibuja257@gmail.com or send a message on Facebook: Buja257
Being Duchesse 